Elder Zack Stidham

Monday, July 3, 2017

What up my favorite white people?!?! I hope that everyone
has a Great 4th of July Weekend and eat lots of BBQ in my name !!

Well man it’s been a busy week!! I’ve had a lot of emergency
work in the office so that’s why I’m writing late today!

But I guess ill start off with the title... YEAH WE
LITTERALLY BUILT A HOUSE FOR SERVICE!!!! We were told that a member would be
moving into our sector and he called us asking us help him with his new
house... obviously we gladly jumped at the opportunity to do service! But we
also kinda figured that it would be helping him move his stuff in.... WRONG ...
we spent over 8 hours with 6 missionaries and 6 other men mixing cement and
carrying it up latters then placing it.... man what a work out!!! I can honestly
say that was one of the most physically challenging things of my mission, but
hey it was a cool experience and something I’m glad I had the chance to
participate in. Every time I thought I couldn’t keep mixing cement anymore I
looked around me and just saw the very tired, but very happy faces of the
family that we were working with. Man what inspiration to keep working.

Also we were just getting back to the house Friday afternoon
to study (I study at like 2:00-5:00 because of the time in the office each
morning) and all of the sudden everything just started shaking! Yeah we had a
6.2 earthquake here this week and that was pretty crazy! Obviously
nothing much happened cuz that’s not too powerful but still!

Today I got permission to go to Isla Santi which is this
little island here in Guayaquil that has a bridge that you got to cross by bike
to get to. There are all kind of animals and things to see! On the island there
are anteaters, raccoons, anacondas, and above all Crocodiles! What a cool p-day!!

So much more happened but I’m running out of time to write,
my spiritual thought for the week is to do whatever you can to find an
opportunity to do Service!! When the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth he
came in the form of a Servant! Why? Because that is the absolute best way to
bring the Gospel into the lives of our brothers and sisters that are waiting
for it!!! I love the Story of Aaron and how that he never found
"success" in his labors until he followed the example of Alma and
began to serve the people. I promise to you brothers and sisters in the name of
Jesus Christ that you look for an opportunity to serve someone this week you
will find a chance to do "missionary work" and invite the Spirit and
Gospel into someone’s life!

Thanks for all the love and support and make sure you don’t
do anything *too* stupid this weekend!

Have fun blowing things up kiddies!!

Love Elder Stidham

1. family home evening with 5 investigators!

2. service project we did and ended up in the office super dirty and sweaty haha sorry but i like the pics

5. going to Isla Santi

6. entering the Jungel part of the island

7. me wrestinlin a gator.

8. Crocs

OH YEAH!! WE FOUND SUBWAY!!! honestly didnt know that existed on this contanent!! yeah we white boys were pretty dang happy about that!!!

Monday, June 19, 2017

Sounds like an awesome week momma!! Wow those mountains look
so beautiful!!! I’ve decided that I will never live in a big city cuz I just
miss the mountain too dang much... in Naranjal and Santa Rosa I was close
enough to them to not miss them too much, but here in Guayaquil its kind of
ugly and I do miss the mountains. But on the bright side I love getting to wake
up looking at a Mango and Coconut tree every day!!

Say hi to the family for me!

Yeah I got to work a lot with Galapagos! Everyone tells me
that after serving in the office for about 9 months I’m almost guaranteed to go
to Galapagos. Honestly I don’t really care too much to go to Galapagos or not.
I love being a missionary and it doesn’t matter where I serve! I mean sure it
would be great and awesome to say that I served there but that’s not why I
would want to go. I also kinda hope that I don’t end up staying in the office
for that long but I guess well find out....

I wrote a few cards that Elder Chogas has in the backpack
that I sent home with him! He also gave his Homecoming talk yesterday but it
was in Spanish so I guess you didn’t miss out... he goes to a Spanish
ward obviously. But hey he’s got all the stuff and wants to drop it off but I don’t
have his email or any other way to contact him besides his home phone number
that is in the church records!

Hey can you do me a favor and find the video of dad giving
his speech?! I would really appreciate that!!

My mission president and his wife thing its the funniest
thing ever that you made that cut out of me for the wedding!!! haha they think
its great! It sure makes me laugh too!

I love you too momma bear and I’m so grateful and proud to
call you my mom°!!

Thursday, June 15, 2017

What up Friends and Family?? Sorry to keep you all anxiously
waiting for your favorite missionary to write ya this week but I’ve been
insanely slammed this week!!

I guess being the Secretary to President also means that I
will sometimes literally too busy to sleep haha! (Like seriously I went 3 days
on less than 5 hours of sleep.... but don’t worry I’m caught up and beautiful
again ) So the reason I was so busy is
because I am in charge of these things:

-New Missionaries

-Terminating Missionaries

-Visas

-Flights to Galapagos

-Transfers

-Anything else the President/His Wife need

But what made it all so much "Better" is that this
was my first time doing it all alone (my trainer Elder Barba had cambios) and
so it just happened this week that they all Needed to be done at the exact
time.....

It was a fun week, don’t get me wrong!! It’s just that it robbs
so much time from us being in the Sector

Anyways besides that craziness I’ve got some other cool
news!! So I had changes this last week which I’m actually super sad about (for
the fourth time ill say this... I HATE CHANGES!!!)

I understand the Lord has a plan for all of us and needs me
here at this time. But I’m just so sick of saying goodbye to people... especially
to such a cool ward like Los Claveles!! My new changes are actually to return
to my old´ sector Letamendi. I also have a new companion Elder Chin! The funny
thing is that he went to Bingham high as well but I never knew him before!! So
yeah shout out to Ryan Chin, let me know if any of you know him!

Last but not least we had another baptism!! Her name is
Maria Fernanda, she has consistently gone to church for MORE THAN ONE YEAR!!! But
she never got baptized before because she wasn’t married. We worked every day
that we could with her and finally got a wedding date (last week) so she was
baptized the next day by her son!! YEAH BABY THATS 2 WEDDINGS IN ONLY 9
MONTHS!! *Guess I was kind of upset I missed the wedding of my older brother so
I decided to just "have one here" ;) haha but seriously it was so
cute to see the family together and get more active in the Church!!

That’s about all I got for you kiddies today, stay safe and
keep on keeping on!

Elder Stidham

1. Compañero Estudiando

2. The setup of the Wedding (sorry this is literally all the
photos on my camera of the wedding)

3. Maria Fernando getting baptized by her son David.

4. Saying Goodbye to Samilia Alcivar.

5. Hermana Sandra making empanadas (she is the best chef
here in South America!!!!)

6. The last Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) me and
Elder Barba had here :(

10. Familia Villena (pronounced Bee-yay-na)

11. Hermana Carolina is an incredible Artist!! Ill send pics
of the Painting she’s doing for me when it’s done!